Dan could only stare at his hands, white-knuckled and trembling, as they curled around his gun. The shot was still ringing in his ears, and all he could think was, I used to play piano with these hands.
He remembered being fifteen years old and sitting at a grand piano in a hotel restaurant, smiling at a camera and showing a stranger how his brothers’ rock’n’roll could be converted into a slow, poignant melody.
He’d always had the prettiest hands of the lot - whenever they rewatched old videos of themselves hosting the Juno awards, Clay would make fun of how girly his hands were for the Celine Dion joke. Dan always defended himself - he was the piano player. His hands were supposed to be graceful.
“Summers, I need you to let go of the gun.”
Dan blinked. Officer Henry was standing beside him, trying to ease the gun out of his hands. Dan’s hands tightened reflexively, and hell, when had his hands become so pale?
“Officer, the gun. It’s safe now.” Henry smiled weakly.
Dan took a deep breath. “Just give me a moment to unclench, okay?” He could remember twelve-hour-days in the basement in the house in Nashville, how swollen and cramped his hands were after rehearsals. His pretty little hands would curl into tight claws because he’d been playing so hard and so long, and he usually had to soak them in hot water and get Bob to rub them before he could even move them again.
Not even Bob would help now.
“Is he dead?” Dan asked.
Henry glanced over his shoulder. “Yeah.” He swallowed hard. “You’re lucky - he has a piece on him.”
2 comments:
I like how you weave the description of the hands into the story without it being the absolutely main focus. I still have trouble with that. And I realized, that even though I issued this challenge, it's going to be hard for me to write it. Maybe I just need to not focus to much and let it flow. I liked near the end, the description of how Bob used to have to massage his hands, and how Bob's couldn't help. Very nice!
I figured it'd be hard to have six decent pieces focused solely on hands although I got lucky and the characters I'm working with right now are musicians, so their hands are important, but - I figured Dan could use some love and excitement. If you ever see that teeny tiny clip of him playing "Miss You Like Crazy" on the piano, it's a really beautiful version, just him and the piano.
As for the Celine Dion joke at the Junos - he really did have the prettiest hands.
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